Malcolm Tucker and the Time Lord may appear to have little in common, but Peter Capaldi has said that his starring role in Doctor Who has made him much more sympathetic to the foul-mouthed spin doctor.

Armando and Peter - both Glasgow born Italian Scots - go way back together and it was the writer's casting of Capaldi as Malcolm Tucker on BBC show The Thick of It which helped relaunch the new Doctor Who's career.

Working as a director on Sky Atlantic's Veep has made Chris Addison, star of The Thick of It, view US television with new eyes.

Written by Chris Addison. The Sunday Telegraph, 17th February 2013

The last full series of Armando Iannucci's blistering satire brought us a coalition government, carrying an innefectual junior partner and fighting a weak, disorganised opposition. But aside from the contemporary echoes, the show stuck to what's been its central point all along: that so much modern politics is a series of PR stunts and botches, conceived not to make the world better but to get or keep power. The hour-long inquiry episode was riveting, Roger Allam shone as the newly empowered (in theory) Peter Mannion, and Peter Capaldi's fearsome spin doctor Malcolm Tucker bowed out in a final episode to rank with any sitcom finale.

The satire came to a glorious climax, and went from being cathartic to prophetic.

Written by Mark Lawson. The Guardian, 21st December 2012

Knowing when to end a show is one of the most difficult things for TV writers and stars, but Armando Iannucci got it just right with this fourth and final series of The Thick Of It.

The political satire remained razor sharp, Malcolm Tucker remains one of the most incredible TV creations of all time ("You don't know Jackie f***ing Chan about me") and the penultimate Goolding Inquiry episode - which couldn't have been any more timely - was a brave and bold twist to the show's magic formula, which paid off brilliantly.

We'll keep our fingers crossed that Tucker may return for one (or two) final specials in years to come, but if this really is the end, then what a stunning way to bow out.

The Thick Of It's 'omnishambles' word has been awarded word of the year status by the Oxford English Dictionary.

Written by Tim Clark. Such Small Portions, 13th November 2012

Sadly it was the final episode of possibly the last ever series of The Thick of It (Saturday, BBC Two). After a strange interlude in which the regular characters went before a select committee - a scenario which they didn't really play for laughs - it was back to the verbal gymnastics we know and love. Iannucci has a gift for putting into Malcolm Tucker's mouth similes and metaphors of great originality, ones which manage to shock and amuse at the same time.

It looks like Malcolm is going to prison for perjury, with Ollie Reeder, the young pretender, taking over his throne. The joke was that Tucker couldn't get arrested, literally, because every police station he reported to had a backlog due to Home Office incompetence.

Tucker had planned an exit for himself that would be worthy of a Shakespearean tragic hero, but things didn't quite go his way. Standing on the steps of a police station about to address a waiting mob of journalists you expected him to explode. Instead, more poignantly, he hesitated and said: "It doesn't matter."

So farewell then to BBC2's The Thick Of It. And a special '****ety-bye' to Peter Capaldi's Malcolm Tucker. We will probably never see their like on TV again.

If I was being picky I might say I would have preferred it if Tucker had bowed out with the penultimate episode's withering government inquiry speech. But now is not the time for being picky. Now is the time to order the box set.

The Thick of It's last ever episode drew a fairly modest audience on Saturday night, early data shows.

Written by Paul Millar. Digital Spy, 30th October 2012

"So, now I have to step into your shoes, but after you've shat in them," said Ollie in the last Thick of It, learning that his first task as Malcolm's stand-in was to spin the arrest of his predecessor on charges of perjury. Malcolm didn't think Ollie was going to be able to fill those shoes, though. "You're not even Manchester's top Malcolm Tucker tribute band," he roared before a meltdown that combined blistering invective with genuine melancholy and pain. Glenn got a lot of things off his chest too, in an episode that ended on the implication that, while some cogs had gone, the machine rumbles on regardless. I hope this is not the end.

As Malcolm Tucker would say, it was "just another day at the f***-office". Can there really be no more?

Written by Caroline Frost. The Huffington Post, 28th October 2012

When a chief whip on a bike is caught behaving out of order, when a prime minister is accidentally heard calling someone a bigot, or when a chancellor of the exchequer is spotted fare-dodging on a train, there is only one thing to say: "It is just like The Thick of It!" we cry.

But with the end last night of the final series of the acclaimed BBC sitcom, an intriguing question remains; how long will the phrase survive in common British parlance? Will it go on to join long-defunct sitcoms such as Grange Hill and Steptoe and Son to become a part of the national psyche?

Signs look good, since the show quickly took over from Yes, Minister, the political sitcom that inspired it, once frequently used to describe the chicanery of civil service mandarins.

Former Observer columnist Armando Iannucci's show represented its era with uncanny accuracy, aping the spineless manoeuvring and ruthless spinning of its targets with little need for caricature.

It is fair then to assume that Malcolm Tucker will live on at least as long as naughty Tucker from Grange Hill.